Meaningful ‘Fits’ From Within

In case you wondered where names, phrases, or just general vibes from the Woods begin, usually they start with a hard-stuck memory that’s part of me, beckoning to live once again in my real world for all time. Often (but not always) it’s a song…

…and also a recent bundle in the shop called Summer Breeze…

Even the way we’ve always wrapped our orders from the very beginning of our days as a shop here in Serendipity Woods, doesn’t just represent wrapping for the sake of wrapping.

So when I was mapping out the writing of my first pattern and also working to find a good name that ‘fit’…

As I created the pattern, I began to ruminate over the origin of Jiggity Jig in the back of my mind. In general, it’s from a long ago nursery rhyme featuring a trip to market (to ‘buy a fat pig’ (?) then returning ‘home again, home again, Jiggity Jig’. While I don’t remember the nursery rhyme being a particularly memorable one from my childhood, I’ve always felt a unique warmth surrounding this nonsense term ‘Jiggity Jig’ which sort of means happy dance, I think, but I can’t say for sure. In essence, for me – perhaps it connects to a deep-seated sense that HOME represents my happiest place in terms of my people and this happy-dance-sort-of-life I love. Anyway, of course my Jiggity Jig pattern name stuck and remains a perfect fit for my first pattern.

So as I began chewing on names for my second pattern I decided to just let the deepest parts of my brain just mull over for a while, trusting that something *in here*, which somehow needed to be *out there* – would chime in.

When I think of windows, I think about a book I read many times to my children when they were small.

It’s a deeply charming book filled with gorgeous illustrations by Debi Gliori. Throughout the story, there are several endearing illustrations of the pair featured similarly to the above cover drawing, peering out the window of their warm, cozy home inside a tree. Several of my children loved this book so much and as a result – The images AND the story are pretty vivid in my memory and theirs.

Also as a result – we have a dear little cat who’s named Willa.

Like the the little bunny named Willa in the book, our Willa is sweet and a little silly too. She’s also a little insecure, needing reassurance from time to time. Hence, the name Willa fits her personality perfectly.

As for my new pattern, which features those ‘window’ blocks I mentioned earlier – I knew it needed a name that originated from someplace meaningful too. It needed to fit.

Did I mention that the big brother of Willa (the bunny in the book) has one of the most clever sounding names?